and as to the offices and work of the Holy Ghost, as a convincing, comforting, teaching, and sanctifying Spirit, I might be truly said not to know any thing of the matter. Confused and limited as my knowledge of the christian system was, I soon became proud of it, and even considered it as that faith spoken of in the Scriptures, and treated of in the sermons had read. But, alas, as this was only a small accession of scriptural information, it did not purify my heart, or work by love. Indeed, with the exception of having left off swearing, and ridiculing of religion, my practice was much the same as before; and, as conscience did its work a little more faithfully, my life was only more wretched. Sinning, and vowing against committing sin, repenting and transgressing, and transgressing and repenting, made up the round of most of my days and months during the three years I was abroad. My companions often thought me happy; I knew myself to be miserable. During this period many visible providential mercies fell to my lot. Our ship was twice nearly set on fire, and on both occasions I was greatly instrumental in overcoming this most awful of all maritime calamities. Nay, in the last instance, I was the sole and timely instrument. It was on a Sunday. We were lying in Malta harbour; and as almost all the officers and crew were either on shore or upon the upper deck I had embraced the opportunity of sitting down to read the Bible: and being near the spot where the fire burst out, I was enabled, though almost at the expense of suffocation, to throw a quantity of water on it, and to extinguish what, in five minutes, would have so filled the lower part of the ship with

smoke, and have so extended itself, as to baffle human efforts. As it was, the danger was past by the time the alarmed crew began to descend with a view of combating it. Thrice after my return from the hospital, our people were visited with pestilential diseases which proved fatal to many, and more than once or twice we narrowly escaped shipwreck; besides sharing in all the vicissitudes of seasons and services mentioned in "Collins's Voyages to Portugal, Spain, Sicily, Malta, Asia Minor, Egypt, &c. &c." as our ship was frequently in company with the Dolphin, employed in the same branch of service, visited most of the places, and shared in the same perils, which are related of that vessel during the last three years of her continuance in those seas.

Had I been blessed with a serious friend, I might, through divine mercy, have become more decidedly a Christian; but such a privilege I as yet had never enjoyed. On the contrary, my messmates, and every officer in the ship, were not only ignorant of God, but seemingly vied with each other in sin. When I could get on shore alone, I generally fell into a reflecting mood, and often enjoyed a solitary ramble on the banks of the Nile, or the shores of Cyprus and ancient Crete, and felt desirous of hearing what these places once heard, and of seeing what their inhabitants once saw. But the first hour that returned me to my companions drove all these thoughts away. The superb magnifi

cence and solemn state of the Roman Catholic churches

* The pious author of these Voyages is now dead; but I gladly embrace this opportunity of recommending his little book as an interesting christian narrative of facts.

struck me with awe. Though I felt certain they were the temples of corrupt and superstitious worshippers, yet I fell into a pleasing melancholy, whenever I could pace their aisles undisturbed and unseen. But I think the worshippers of the impostor Mahomet struck my vain mind with more solemnity than any other people. Proud as I was of my better creed, yet their practice put me to the blush, whenever I saw them prostrate on the earth, absorbed in their devotions, and utterly regardless of the eyes and the opinions of others. Many, indeed, were the striking objects which at different times and places continued to present themselves to the eye, as well as to the mind, during our long and roving services in the Mediterranean. For the christian and classic reader is well aware that we could scarcely pass the shores of any country, or approach the shelter of any harbour, whose present or past history did not powerfully admonish us to consider the instability of all earthly things. On many of these occasions the Spirit of the Lord certainly strove with me, although I knew it not at the time.Yes; it was undoubtedly that unknown still small voice, which sometimes made me thus converse with myself: Where is the ancient wisdom, and where all the once boasted greatness of Egypt? Where the splendour of its Alexandria, the pomp and luxury of its Canopus, and the glory of its Pharaohs? Where is Tyre, and where is Carthage? Where the seven churches planted by the apostles? knowledge and holy practice they

Where the pure once inculcated?

Gone-some few broken fragments of the one, and some few eclipsed remains of the other, are indeed to be found;

but their glory is departed, and their very remembrace is likely to perish from off the earth!"

But Sicily and its volcano, its ruins and its neighbouring coast, displayed too much of the grand operations of nature, and of the awful visitations of God, to pass unnoticed even by a more thoughtless being than myself.

It was impossible to stand on the shores of Messina without feeling some awe in the contemplation of surrounding objects. If the eye turned southward, it beheld the towering summit of Mount Ætna, pouring forth its clouds of smoke, and occasionally emitting the vivid flame; and when it retired to survey nearer objects, it saw in many places little else than melancholy ruins of what had once been the habitations of men, the chambers in which the tabret and the pipe, the viol and the harp had sounded—the ruins of whole ranges of buildings, whose lofty tops many years ago caught and reflected the first rays of that day's sun, who before he went down saw the convulsive earthquake hurl them into their present forlorn and prostrate state, beheld the sea cast its waves on the unresisting shore, and sweep its crowded and despairing people into one common grave.

My then confused and scanty knowledge of the human heart will account for my surprise and perplexity, when, standing by these ruins, thoughtful and distressed, I saw the natives pass and repass, utterly unmindful of the scenes which so much engaged my attention. Surely, I said to myself, these people are stupid and hardened in the extreme, who can every day behold yonder vol

cano, and every day live in the very midst of these ruins, and yet every day take the lead in all manner of sin!

Alas! poor moralizer! thou couldst see the mote in thy brother's eye, but thou didst not discern the beam in thine own; otherwise thou wouldest have ceased to marvel at the Sicilian's indifference, and have asked thyself how it was that these reflections on God and his judgments could vanish from thine own mind the instant the objects which gave rise to them were withdrawn from thy sight!

What greatly assisted to dissipate serious reflections from my mind was the several active duties I generally had to perform, and in the bustle of which I took so much delight; especially, as I was for the last two years we were abroad directed by the captain to do lieutenant's duty both at sea and in port. This was undoubtedly a great help towards increasing my professional knowledge, but it made me very vain and worldly-minded.

While I pass over many occurrences in silence, there is one which I cannot but notice; it took place a few weeks after my becoming acquainted with the Village Sermons. Sitting alone, and, for the first time, reading the Pilgrim's Progress, I felt much interested; and though I understood but little of its spiritual import, I made a general application of it to myself. I considered life as a journey, beset with innumerable dangers, and myself as a traveller surrounded by so many and great difficulties, that I deemed it almost impossible but I must one day fall under them, and never reach the celestial city. It was no trifling season. I closed the